Planting Rutabagas
by Isabel5
Summary: One-Shot. Chloe/Oliver - Chloe and Oliver deal with thier trust issues in the aftermath of Chloe's betrayal. SPOILERS through Conspiracy.


Chloe was tired, so tired, she'd never been more tired in her life. Not when she was in college, pulling all nighters. Not when she was stuck in the basement of the Daily Planet existing on pure ambition and mainlining caffeine. Not even on nights when she was going on hour thirty two of talking Victor through some complicated software algorithms. This was a tired that she felt deep in her bones, a tired that she'd somehow managed to push to the back of her mind for the past three days and still function like a fully rested human being, a tired so all encompassing that she wasn't even sure she could fall asleep if she tried.

She pushed open the heavy door of the Watchtower and kicked off her shoes, immediately sighing in relief. She was worried for a second that they had melded to her feet and become a part of her body. She walked two feet into the room, hung her bag on the coat rack, stopped with a groan and turned back to pick up the shoes. She knew if she didn't pick them up now she'd just trip over them in the morning.

She made her way into the kitchen and dropped the shoes in the chair in the corner. She opened the cabinet above the coffee pot and stared in quiet contemplation at the two jars staring back at her. The one with the blue top held decaf coffee and the promise of the possibility of at least 3 hours of sleep that night. The one with the red top held much needed caffeine that could theoretically put her through to the next morning, afternoon if she made it double strength.

She looked longingly at the stairs that led up to her bedroom then turned her gaze to the stack of paper that needed her immediate attention balanced precariously on her desk. With a resigned sigh she grabbed the red topped jar and pulled it down to the counter. It wasn't until she had it open did she realized there was a fresh pot was already brewing. "Figured you'd need it." She replaced the lid on the jar and turned around slowly.

Oliver was sitting in the chair in the corner that she'd dropped her shoes in on the way to the kitchen. She hadn't even noticed him. He was sitting there staring at her with an amused expression on his face, the aforementioned shoes dangling from his fingertips. "Sorry, I didn't see you there." Chloe said, stating the obvious.

"I assumed." Oliver let the shoes slip to the floor.

"What exactly are you doing there?" She asked him.

"I haven't seen you in two weeks." He told her and she blanched. That didn't seem right to her, she was sure it hadn't been that long. "I can barely get you on the phone and when I do, you seem to be in an unbelievable hurry to get me off the phone." He stood up and walked to the kitchen, his hands sliding into his pocket. "I figured if I wanted to see you, I'd have to take the initiative." Oliver looked tired and rumpled, his tie was loose, his top button was undone, like he'd come over straight from work, sat down in that chair and waited almost ten hours for her to come home.

"Right." Chloe turned around and stared at the coffee pot, pulling a cup out of the drying rack by the sink and filling it with coffee because she just couldn't look at him. "I assumed you were still mad at me."

"Oh I am." Oliver said not skipping a beat, not sugar coating it and Chloe winced. "But it doesn't mean I want to sever all ties with you, go radio silent."

"I wasn't severing all ties." Chloe rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "I've just been busy and I've been giving you space."

"If I'd wanted space." He was right behind her now, his hands settled lightly on her hips. "I'd have asked for it." His hands moved from her hips, sliding slowly around her waist to stop with his fingers splayed open on her stomach, his thumb rubbing softly over her ribcage.

Chloe shivered, she couldn't help it. It had been a long time, after Jimmy died, she went a long time without being touched like this. Then Oliver came along and even before they started this thing that they'd started between them he was a toucher. Whether it was sliding his hand along her back when he passed behind her, guiding her places with a soft had on her elbow, a pat on the shoulder or a kiss on the cheek. Then it became more, his body flush against her back, while he taught her to use her bow. His lips hot on her neck. Then they had a fight, not their first fight by any means but their first fight after starting whatever this was and there were no more touches. She'd gone so long before she didn't think she'd miss it but God help her she did.

Without realizing it she leaned back against him, giving in to him. He held her tight with his right hand and his left hand traveled up her abdomen slowly until it grazed the edge of the card hanging from the cord around her neck. His fingers gripped it tight and pulled until the clasp on the cord snapped. Her eyes flew open and he stepped back a few feet. "So what's this then?"

Chloe turned around. He was flipping the card over and over in his fingers. He'd known it was there, he'd been looking for it and the fact that he hadn't even bothered to look at it made her think that he knew exactly what it was. Something came over her, the same feeling she'd gotten two weeks ago when he'd come to her about the money, this urge to tell him the truth, to tell him everything. She wanted to fight it but she knew it was useless. "My ID badge."

"ID badge?" He asked with a smile. "ID badge for what?"

"My job." Chloe pushed off the edge of the counter and walked over to the table to sit down.

"Your job?" Oliver looked around. "I wasn't aware we needed ID badges in the Watchtower."

She rolled her eyes at him. "My other job." She said. Just because she was planning on telling him didn't mean she was going to make it easy.

"Your other job." He nodded and sat down across from her. "The one that keeps you so busy you can't answer the phone, the one that keeps you so busy you can't even come home for two days?"

"I'm on call 24/7." She told him and wanted to ask how he knew she hadn't been home, how he knew any of it but, like always he seemed to be able to read her mind.

"Come on Chloe, you don't think I built one of the biggest and best technologies companies in the world without learning my way around a computer?" Chloe realized he had a point. "What job is this exactly?"

"Why don't you tell me, you seem to know it all lately." Chloe knew her tone was petty and childish but she couldn't help it, she really didn't like not being in control.

"Because I want you to tell me." He leaned forward and his face was suddenly serious. "I need you to tell me." He slid the ID badge over the table to her and sat back.

Chloe nodded slowly. He was doing this for her, giving her a chance to come clean, to air one of the many many secrets she was keeping from him, put it all out in the open. "My job as a technological assistant for the corporate division of a major Consumer Electronic store."

Oliver smirked at her. "You're a member of the Geek Squad at Best Buy." He said, receiving not a little amount of joy from that statement. His smile was infectious though and Chloe found the edges of her lips lifting.

"We're called Agents actually." She informed him.

"Agents really?" He crossed his arms over his chest, the smile threatening to jump off his face.

"Oh yes." Chloe sipped her coffee. "I'm only a Certified Special Agent right now by my manager says that if I keep up the good work I could make it up to Deputy Field Marshall in no time."

"Deputy Field Marshall?" Oliver asked, his cheeks aching. "Does that come with a little badge, oh please tell me you get a little badge."

"I'll have to ask." Chloe said and neither of them could take it anymore, laughter spilling out uncontrollably.

They laughed so hard their sides hurt and Chloe was struggling to catch her breath and it felt good. "There is one thing I don't know." Oliver said. "Why are you working as a Certified Special Agent for Geek Squad?"

Chloe sighed and stood up, pushing herself away from the table. Oliver followed her movement with his eyes as she made her way to the door, dug through her bag for a second and then walked back to reclaim her seat across from him. She laid something on the table top and slid it to Oliver.

"What's this?" He asked confused, picking it up.

"A check." Chloe told him.

"I see that." He looked from the check up to her. "What's it for?"

"We'll call it the first installment in my "Pay Oliver Back" payment plan." Chloe shrugged.

"You don't have to…" He tried to give her the check back and she shook her head. "I wasn't mad about the money. I have more than enough to go around. It was the stealing, the fact that you didn't ask."

"That's just it though." Chloe told him. "I didn't even know I was stealing."

He frowned. "What? Like you were doing it in your sleep? You were sleep robbing me?"

"No it was like, as far as I was concerned that was just a part of my job, a part of the job that you hired me for, preparing for any eventuality, protecting the people. I didn't think I had to ask." Chloe said.

"If you tell me we need to put trackers in the Kandorian's ID's, I believe you. If you say we need to stock pile Kryptonite weapons, I'm behind you. Hell if you said the only way to fend off a coming worldwide alien invasion was with Rutabagas, I'd buy up a hundred thousand acres and start planting." He looked at her. "Do you know what I'm saying here?"

"You want to start a farm?" Chloe asked him.

"No but I would, if you told me to. The thing is I don't just want to buy you the farm Chloe. I'm not a silent partner here. I want to dig in the dirt, I want to plant the seeds. I want to help you farm, till the soil…can we stop with the farming metaphor."

"You're the one planting Rutabagas." Chloe pointed out.

"I want you to let me get my hands dirty too." He explained. "Obviously we have more than our fair share of trust issues that need to be worked out Chloe, for more than one reason but one thing I don't ever doubt are your instincts." He sighed.

"How can you say that?" Chloe asked him confused. "The last time I followed my instincts, well, we all know what happened."

"No." He looked at her, forced her to look at him. "What happened to Jimmy, what happened to Davis, had nothing to do with your instincts. You were right, the whole time you were right. We shouldn't have punished Davis for something that was beyond his control. Regardless of the outcome, and I know how hard it is, you should never feel bad about the fact that you wanted to keep us from killing an innocent man. Your problem was you didn't ask for help and that's what we're here for. You're not alone, we're a team, we're your team, you've spent the better part of a year trying to get us back together and we can help you, but you have to let us." Chloe sat back and let that all sink in. "You're right, you don't need to ask my permission." Oliver told her. "You don't need my permission to do ' job and you're right, this was a part of your job. It would have been nice though if you had asked my opinion." Chloe was silent for a minute.

"But I do need your permission." Chloe whispered and Oliver looked up at her confused. "Do you know why I tried so hard to get us all back together?" He shook his head. "So that you could watch me, so that you could stop me." She stood up and started pacing. "God Oliver, I didn't even realize what I was doing until you said something to me. I do need your permission, I was out of line, way out of line and…" She collapsed back in her chair. "I need you to set boundaries for me and I need you to enforce them because I can't see the line anymore." Her voice was desperate. "I don't know when to stop, I can't see the difference between cautious and paranoid, between the things I do for your own safety and the things I do for my own piece of mind. For God sakes at one point I was monitoring your online grocery orders, cross referencing them with your medical records and changing your cereal because your Doctor said you weren't getting enough fiber in your diet."

"I knew I didn't order that cereal." He said with a smile.

"This is serious." She glared at him.

"I know, it is." He said. "But the fact that you recognize how serious is a big step."

"I want to be honest with you, I want to let you in but it's not always going to be easy and it's definitely not going to be my first instinct. Sometimes you're going to have to spy on me, sometimes you're going to have to drag stuff out of me bit by bit but I'm trying here."

"I know." He pushed his chair back and walked around the table. "I can question your every move, take back the reigns and give the orders, I can be your Jiminy Cricket until that line becomes more clear, if that's what you need." Chloe relaxed visibly and he rested his hands on her shoulders. "My first order of business." He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "You are getting some sleep."

Chloe tilted her head up to look at him. "I can't." She smiled sweetly. "I'm on call." As if just waiting for the right moment, her phone began to ring in her pocket. Oliver was quicker than she was, pulling it out of her jacket and turning it on.

"Hello." He said then looked down at Chloe who was motioning for him to hand her the phone. He turned away. "No I'm sorry, she won't be coming on any more calls tonight or in the near future, because she quits."

"Oliver." Chloe pulled herself to her feet and snapped at him.

"Who am I?" He looked over at Chloe and smiled. "I'm her boyfriend." He said before hanging up the phone.

Chloe just stared at him, they hadn't talked about what was going on between them, they definitely hadn't talked about labels but somehow when he'd said that, it felt right. "I can't just quit my job." She said for lack of anything more intelligent in wake of his pronouncement.

"You don't need that job." Oliver said. "You're exhausted, you're running yourself ragged, and you're no good to me like that."

Chloe swallowed. "Are you saying that as my boss or my boyfriend." Her throat caught slightly when she said the last word and Oliver noticed.

"Both." He slid her phone in his pocket.

"I'm still going to pay you back." Chloe told him but he ignored her.

"Eight hours sleep at least, the world can function without you for that long."

"I'm not so sure about that." She quirked a smile and turned around and headed for the stairs. She stopped and turned back to him, holding out her hand. "Stay with me?" She asked. He froze uncertain. In the history of their relationship, he'd always been the one to make the moves, he was always the instigator but now she was making a move.

"I thought you'd never ask." Oliver slid his hand in hers and allowed her to pull him up the stairs.


End file.
